Tuesday, October 29, 2013

FamilySearch Announces Source Contest, Sunset of NewFamilySearch.org

imagenew.FamilySearch.org is scheduled for Read-only status at the end of this year,” Ron Tanner recently posted on FamilySearch.org. Tanner is Family Tree product manager. “With the capabilities the Family Tree has, we are excited to migrate all of our users to this unified, collaborative platform. There are so many advantages for users to make the move to Family Tree, it makes sense for everyone.”

Read-only status means that those with access to new.FamilySearch.org (NFS) will be able to view information but not make changes. Total closure is scheduled for the end of 2014.

Since the introduction of FamilySearch Family Tree, new features have not been added to NFS. Consequently, many features exist only in Family Tree, like

  • photos, documents, and stories
  • the ability to delete erroneous information
  • easier sourcing
  • transfer of sources to desktop tree programs
  • integration with Historical Record Search
  • availability to the general public
  • printable fan chart
  • printable family group chart with sources
  • easier tree navigation
  • change logs with undo functionality

However, NFS retains features not available in Family Tree, such as

  • multiple values for conflicting birth, marriage, and death records
  • sources for particular values (If one source says 1830, you want it attached to the value 1830. If another source says 1834, you want it attached to the value 1834. With Family Tree, it is possible to attach both sources to 1834, making it appear that there is more support for that value than there actually is.)
  • sources added through NFS
  • legacy source identification by batch and FHL film number
  • access to LDS membership records (via combined records view)
  • timelines

Perhaps this is why NFS is becoming read-only for a while, rather than completely going away.

FamilySearch Major Milestone

FamilySearch has also announced a major milestone brought about by Family Tree.

“And I’m excited to tell you that sometime around the end of 2013, the 12-millionth source will be added to FamilySearch,” FamilySearch CEO, Dennis Brimhall, recently announced. “We’ll be watching closely to see who that user will be who submits that 12-millionth milestone.” FamilySearch will award that person with ten hours of research by the FamilySearch VIP research staff.

“We look forward to rewarding one of you for being the one who adds the 12-millionth source to FamilySearch. So, let the challenge begin!” said Brimhall.

6 comments:

  1. Another option available on nFS that is not on Famly Tree is the map feature. Have there been any announcements on these "orphan" features that are on nFS, but not FT--such as the Sources WITH Repositories, Timeline, Maps? Will they EVER be migrated over to FT?

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  2. I'm worried about what type of results 10 hours of professional research for LDS people whose family trees are done will be able to produce. Descendancy research maybe?

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  3. Nathan Murphy, perhaps "LDS people whose family trees are done" (is there really such a thing?) have daughters/sons-in-law who were not LDS and have not had research done on their families. I've always been under the impression that the research on our family trees are NEVER done. I'd like to see that one who IS done. :-)

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  6. Many members of the LDS Church have already paid professional genealogists to trace every one of their lines back as far as they could get them. The additions of millions of indexed entries from the 1700-1900s on popular genealogy websites does little to extend their lineages.

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